Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to recover unpaid court fines.

The Government takes the recovery and enforcement of financial penalties seriously and remains committed to ensuring penalties are paid. His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service uses robust methods to do so including taking money from an offender’s benefits or salary and seizing and selling goods. In addition, the court can send offenders to prison for non-payment.

HMCTS is investing over £14 million to replace an outdated IT system used to support the collection and enforcement of financial penalties. Although the functionality of the modernised system will initially be largely like for like, it will provide HMCTS with a stable foundation for more sophisticated technology features to be delivered in the future to provide further improvements to increase collections.